obeyed? If so, order them, and depend upon the habit of response. Is the thing proposed a natural or routine thing for them to do? Then propose it as a matter of course and look for habitual disposition.

3. Can you connect the proposed end with some settled ideals, notions, or prejudices which they have? If so, make the most of the proper aspects and get the weight of existing tendencies behind your action.

4. Can you make the end appear new and intrinsically attractive? Then do so, dwelling on the emotion evoking aspects, striving for impulsive response.

5. Is it necessary to prove rather than assert the desirability of the end proposed? Do so, but only when necessary, for meditation is the foe of immediate action. If you must prove, do it well. (See Lessons 13, 14, and 15.)

6. If an interval must come between the stimulus of your speech and the act proposed, try to devise a persistent and stimulating brief summary of your suggestive and impelling idea.

ASSIGNMENT OF WORK

The written exercises in this entire lesson should be carefully worked out. Keep copies of the written exercises in your notebook.

First Day.-Read the lesson at least twice and then make a topical outline of it. Master its contents thoroughly. Second Day.-Read again what was said about tropisms and also about the effect of a speaker's personality on an audience. Then list all the possible external influences which you can think of which affect the listener's response whether he knows it or not.

Third Day. Read again what was said about inherited tendencies. Beginning with (1) the tendency to seek nourishment and (2) the tendency to sexual acts of reproduction, make a list of all the tendencies which, to you, seem inher

ited by all men and which they are strongly moved to act out under appropriate stimulation.

Fourth Day.-List settled ideals and prejudices common to most Americans. Combine the lists of the second, third, and fourth days.

Fifth Day.-Outline a speech designed to secure a definite action. Precede the outline with an analysis of the particular audience you imagine. List the springs to action the audience has. Tell the make-up of the audience and then enumerate:

1. Possible external influences;

4.

Settled prejudices and ideals which can be connected with your particular purpose.

Additional Task.-Whenever you read speeches proposing actions, analyze the appeals in the manner given above. Do this very often and write out such an analysis of a speech, from time to time, in your notebook.

TEST QUESTIONS

These questions are for the student to use in testing his knowledge of the principles in this lesson.

They

are suggestive merely, dealing largely with the practical
application of the principles, and are to be placed in the
notebook for future reference.

1. What is the rank of a speech urging to action, in the oratorical scale of values? What is the popular notion of the high-water mark of oratory?

2. Is there such a thing as unconscious action? Among animals? Among men?

What is meant by tropism? Are human beings tropic? 4. What is an inherited tendency? What is a reflex? What is a habitual action?

5. How does conscious action differ from unconscious response?

6. What are the possible stimuli to action? What agency does a speaker employ? Are words as influential as real situations?

7. What influence has a speaker over unconscious responses?

8. What are the essential features of an impulsive action? How are the emotions affected?

9. Has attention anything to do with action? If so, what? 10. Has interest anything to do with action?

11. Of images, concepts, and proved beliefs, which is the strongest stimulus to immediate action? Which tends to guarantee the surest action?

12. What are the essential features of selective action?

13. Do ideals and judgment affect selective action as much or more than inherited instincts? Is there a rule to be applied to all people in this respect?

14. What is meant by the persisting stimulus? Can you name others besides that given?

15. Would an advertising man or a salesman profit by reading this lesson? Would a teacher or parent? Would a foreman or boss of other men?

16. What relation does this lesson bear to the previous lessons? to lesson 3 for example? or lesson 8 or 9 or 12? Could you prepare an outline of the course showing the relation of each topic and lesson to the whole and to each other?

17. What material treated thus far in this course would you put into a course in Personal Efficiency?

18. What from this course would you put into a popular text on applied psychology?

LESSON 17

SPEECH MATERIAL AND ITS PREPARATION

Thus far we have discussed the material of a speech as made up of images, concepts, judgments, and arguments, and we have shown how each may be presented, how each may be demonstrated as representing an existing actuality, and how each may be used to provoke feelings and acts of various sorts. All this implies that the materials used by a speaker-the ideas symbolized by his words-may be divided and subdivided along psychological lines.

Now, however, we wish to make another sort of subdivision-one which recognizes that part of this various material used by the speaker is very directly limited to a particular speech, while part of it is general in character. One portion is the heart of the particular message itself, while the other portion is a kind of general filling or explanatory accompaniment. Every speech contains a mixture of these two ingredients, and the speaker must discover them-must make them come to mind. The act of bringing forth the images, ideas, and arguments was known by the ancient writers as "invention." But invention is not possible in the case of a particular speech without some previous preparation. Furthermore, the preparation which brings forth the specific subject-matter is different from the preparation which bears the general fruit. In this lesson we shall explain the nature and purposes of these two kinds of matter and indicate methods of preparation for their invention.